Scrapbook 3: Telstar 'First' for Britain

TELSTAR ‘FIRST’ FOR BRITAIN

Praise in U.S. for telephone talk

FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT WASHINGTON, Friday.

BRITISH engineers not only put themselves “one up” over France last night by sending the first trans-Atlantic telephone message by the Telstar satellite, they also jumped the gun on the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, the owners of the satellite.

This “first” in satellite communications had been reserved for Mr. Eugene McNeely, president of the company. He was looking forward to making it with to-night’s call to M. Marette, the French Communications Minister.

Company engineers, accepting the Anglo-French rivalry with better grace than has been shown on the other side of the Atlantic, co-operated in the Goonhilly experiment. The French station telephoned the American control centre at Andover, Maine, on the satellite’s next pass.

After to-night’s talk with M. Marette, Mr. McNeely was standing by to telephone a General Post Office official at Goonhilly. The company is maintaining a tactful balance in its relations with the British and French stations.

EUROVISION LINK

It congratulated the French station for being the first to receive and send trans-Atlantic television. This was followed up with a congratulatory message to Goonhilly on the better technical quality

France has had the lion’s share of publicity for its “first” in trans-Atlantic television, partly because it was first and partly because Yves Montand and Michele Arnaud, the French singers, had more glamour than pictures of post office engineers at Goonhilly.

The first formal link between America and Eurovision by Telstar will be seen on Monday week. President Kennedy is expected to appear on the 15-minute programme that will be seen in Britain that evening.

There will be news pictures of the day and of the United Nations headquarters in New York. The European Broadcasting Union programme will be transmitted across the Atlantic a few hours later.